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Tamale, Ghana – Two Upper West based journalists were on Wednesday honoured at the maiden Harmattan Journalism Awards in Tamale by leading agricultural communication NGO, Countrywise Communication – for their hard work and dedication in reporting on agriculture.
Prosper Kwame Kuorsoh of the Ghana News Agency and Philip Bagyiliko Tenzug of MAC Radio in the Upper West Region emerged Best Agriculture Reporters in the Print and Radio Categories respectfully.
The stories of the two journalists beat dozens of entries received from the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern Regions of Ghana. Unfortunately, there was no winner for the third category, television.
Launched in December 2017, the Harmattan Award for Development Journalists seeks to honour hardworking and motivated practicing development journalists in Northern Ghana.
“Countrywise Communication is using the Harmattan Awards for Development Journalists as a tool to refocusing the energies of our hardworking journalists for the benefit of the agro sector and particularly the poor farmers in Northern Ghana.
“The Award was planned for three categories namely: Rasio, Print and TV. However, Countrywise did not receive enough submissions to meet the criteria for TV in this maiden house……” Mr. Vuol Raymond, Executive Director of Countrywise Communication said in his welcome speech.
He commended the awardees for paving the way for others to emulate, hoping that the awards would grow from strength to strength in the coming years.
There are dozens of practicing journalists in Northern Ghana whose hard work over the years has contributed to the socio-economic development of the area and its people. But sadly, many of the these journalists who have been practising for a decade and more, have never been recognised or honoured for the positive roles they have played towards the socio-economic development of Northern Ghana.
So with the institution of the Harmattan Awards for Development Journalists, many practitioners and other stakeholders who have been ‘sympatgetic’ towards their cause, would definitely be proud and happy to know that eventually, there is an award scheme in place to honour journalists.
The award-winning journalists, Mr Kuorsoh and Mr Tengzu – are both passionate development journalists who love to report on the challenges and prospects of agriculture in the Upper West Region.
This is the first time the two promising journalists have received awards relating to their profession and They are now upbeat for the future. For their awards, each of them took home a plaque, citation and tablet.
Chief Executive Officer of Access Agriculture, UK, Phil Malone who also graced the event as one of the sponsors, challenged practising journalists in Northern Ghana to go to rural areas and report on the critical issues affecting people and their livelihoods.
He said the concerns of rural people must be the concern of journalists, and indicated that reporting in the language people understand brings positive results.
By Savannahnews
